The Robot ShiftBuyer's Guide
02Store03Pick

Shelf-to-person robots

Low robots lift whole shelves and bring them to the picker.

Scaled

Thousands of units in daily work across many customers and countries.

3D model of a shelf robot

What it does

A flat robot drives under a mobile shelf, lifts it off the floor and carries it to a pick station. The picker stays in one place and the shelves come to them. Robots find their way by codes on the floor.

The numbers

+200–300%picking efficiency vs manual pickingGeek+ claim
1,000 kgpayload, Hikrobot MR-Q7-1000E and Geek+ P800RSpec
30,000+AMRs shipped by Hikrobot by 2022Vendor figure

Best for

  • E-commerce and retail with many small items
  • Sites where pickers walk more than they pick
  • Growing volume without a new building

Watch out for

  • Needs a flat, level floor. Geek+ lists a 2.5° maximum slope.
  • Shelves stay at walking height, so you don’t use the building’s full height.
  • Pick stations set the throughput ceiling, not the robots.

What it costs

Vendors quote per project and do not publish unit prices.

Why we rate it scaled

Geek+ had delivered about 46,000 AMRs to about 40 countries by June 2024. Hikrobot had shipped more than 30,000 by 2022.

Who makes it in China

Ask every vendor

  • What pick rate per station do your reference sites reach, per hour?
  • How many robots per station do you plan, and why?
  • What happens to throughput when 10% of the robots are down?
Check payback for this robot

Sources